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Central Asian and China Sub-regional Workshop on Serial World Heritage Nomination of the Silk Road

16-21 April 2007

This workshop, organized by the UNESCO World Heritage Centre, will bring together the relevant authorities of each State Party in the sub-region (Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan), China, as well as international experts from UNESCO and ICOMOS, to discuss the serial nomination of the Silk Road for inscription on the World Heritage List. The objectives of the workshop are:

to agree upon and adopt the concept paper and strategic approach for the serial World Heritage nomination of the "Silk Road";

to identify potential sites for the "Silk Road" serial nomination;

to elaborate on the procedure for the "Silk Road" serial nomination; and

to establish the political commitment of the States Parties in the sub-region regarding the "Silk Road" serial nomination.

Central Asia has many cultural sites and historic towns along the "Silk Road", trading routes that in former times flourished as meeting points of different cultures. Recently, important progress has been made by the State Parties of the sub-region, aided by UNESCO, for the conservation and promotion of those historic sites: several of them have already been inscribed on the World Heritage List, including Merv (Turkmenistan), Bukhara and Samarkand (Uzbekistan). A number of other remarkable sites of World Heritage potential, including Otrar (Kazakhstan), Krasnaya Rechka (Kyrgyzstan) and Ajina Tepa (Tajikistan), have also benefited from technical and financial assistance from UNESCO and the international community.